This article provides suggestions about how to optimize your Conversations. It covers best practices for the following:

General design guidelines.

Conversation creation.

Targeting users.

Configuring Conversation display triggers.

General guidelines

The following are general guidelines for designing Conversations:

Avoid over-exposing users to too many Conversations within a short timeframe.

Segment and target specific users as effectively as possible.

Design Conversations campaigns that are short but frequent. Short, frequent campaigns are more effective than longer, static campaigns as they enable you to make frequent creative adjustments and to be more responsive to changing data and results.

Conversation creation

This section details general guidelines for creating Conversations:

Use one clear call to action per Conversation; avoid using a single Conversation to encourage the user to perform multiple actions. Make the call to action the focus of the Conversation (center it within the message).

Select button colors and text defaults carefully, ensuring that your button and text stand out from the background.

Use imagery that communicates what you are trying to get the user to do. For example, if you want the user to click on a promotion, show the SKU (product ID) graphics in the cart and use strikethrough pricing or sale burst imagery.

Localize your Conversations for each of your important regions. By localizing Conversations, you can improve completion rate by as much as 150%.

Conversation targeting

The following are general guidelines for targeting Conversations:

Be conservative when considering the percentage of overall users to reach. Avoid over-messaging users, especially new users of your product. Use the frequency control and configure trigger set-up carefully to prevent over-messaging.

Take advantage of the segmentation options that Swrve offers:

Target specific Conversations at subscribers, but target those subscribers much less frequently than free users.

Target sales or promotions at non-payers; for example, promote an 80%-off sale to non-payers to motivate them to make their first purchase.

Target Conversations at users who have not yet used a particular feature of your app.

Target Conversations at a particular user types; for example, users who have upgraded and users who have installed your app for free.

Target cross-promotional Conversations at users who don’t already own the app.

Event triggers

This section details general guidelines for selecting the app events that trigger your Conversations.

Use triggers to identify when a user sees a Conversation. The table below lists typical trigger events that your development team may have configured to enable you to create Conversations with Swrve.

Event

Sent When a User…

Use this Opportunity to…

Swrve.session_start

…starts a new app session.

…inform users of major changes, updates and special sales.

ui.

…loads a specific menu.

…introduce an interstitial message to introduce new features and holiday promotions.

monetization.store.enter

…enters the store.

…promote app upgrades, new modules (for example, for a language-learning app) or subscriptions (for an app with a subscription revenue model).

monetization.store.exit.no_purchase

…exits the store without making a purchase (sent in addition to monetization.store..exit).

…introduce a sale item to convert non-spenders.

monetization.store.complete_purchase

…makes a purchase.

…introduce a special sale with a large discount to attempt a quick upsell. For example, if a user has just purchased a one-week subscription, this is a good time to let them apply that value towards a one-month subscription.

usage.completedaction.completed

…completes an action within your app.

…prolong user engagement. At this stage, there’s a high probability of them leaving your app. In the instance of a carpooling app, for example, you could use this opportunity to encourage users to list their own vehicle instead of just closing the app.

…ask them to review your app on the app store. This assists user acquisition and promotes your public image in the app store. Do this before delivering in-app messages aimed at promoting user spending.